St. Thomas Raceway... Very Sad News

[Armen]

Jay Morse, track owner, St. Thomas Raceway passed away today.

[Black Sheep]

Sad news indeed

[Stephen06GT]

Rest In Peace Mr. Morse. Thank you for keeping St. Thomas Raceway Park up and running.

[CON VERT]

RIP

[5.4MarkVIII]

That sucks

[Minaccia]

Very sad to hear this news today Jay was always good to us every time we rented the track, ran Grudge Day or just went there for T&T, he pretty well let us do what we wanted while keeping it safe.

RIP Jay.

[Ponyryd]

Yep I heard that today from a co-worker, he’s thinking maybe his wife will keep it going...we shall see.

[ZR]

OMG, terrible news.

[Laffs]

Wow. Thats awful. Jay was a super nice guy and kept that facility fun. Didn't he and his wife have a young daughter as well? Ugh, hate news like that.

[mavrrrick]

R.I.P.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Scott]

RIP Jay.

[RedSN]

Sorry to hear that. I don't think I ever met Jay personally, but always heard his name talked about positively within the mustang drag racers.
Hope the dragway lives on.

[Scrape]

RIP. Hopefully they will keep the track going.

[Biz]

Pretty Shocking for sure. Was just speaking with him 2 weeks ago.
The track is currently closed but expect an announcement in the next day or so.

R.I.P Jay. Way too young.

[MUSTANGWOP]

RIP

[Minaccia]

During all our track rentals Jay always went the extra mile to make sure we went home happy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHIlymZspkA

[Ponyryd]

I thought the track was actually owned by the guys that own Grand Bend, but Jay was leasing it from them. Either way it sucks, hope it stays open.

[Minaccia]

The track is owned by the Grand Bend people and Jay is leasing it and I hope his wife and daughter keep it going but if they decide not to there is a long list of people who want to take that track over.


I thought the track was actually owned by the guys that own Grand Bend, but Jay was leasing it from them. Either way it sucks, hope it stays open.

[bbriann]

R.I.P Jay

[Darkhorse]

The original owner was a man named Fletcher who eventually went on to own horses and has done very well for himself over the years. He originally sold the track to another man (forget his name, but he was a crusty dude) he was previously the St. Thomas Ford dealership owner too. He eventually gave up on it and the track went back into the hands of Fletcher who was still the note holder on the property. He ran it briefly before setting things up with Jay because horses and other investments are where Fletcher needed to be. Jay has run things for at least 12-14 years of the 16 or so years I've been racing there.

In the last few years the folks at Grand Bend purchased the track, but Jay still kept to the deal he had.

Sparta has to be at least 53 years old now, the 50th Anniv was a few years ago.

I'm not sure if Michelle and Metzler will just continue for the life of the deal or if something else will be worked out, but certainly hope it stays going as a track.

The track has always been on the edge of collapse as it's expensive to maintain and the residents in the area are just waiting for the day they can force it to close. There are already lots of restrictions on noise and times you can race.

Many other people have looked at trying to open tracks in Southern Ontario, but the politicians and insurance companies are not warm to this.

From the very beginnings of the annual Grudge day and onward to today, Jay was always supportive and provided value for money in my view.

Jay told me a story once of a guy with a million dollar double stack set-up pulling in and breaking his balls over $5 on the entry fee. Not an easy business to run.

RIP Jay.

[Silver LX]

Very sad news. As many mentioned, Jay was a great human being who was always happy to see us. He will be missed. RIP Jay.

[WidowrRacing]

R.I.P. Jay.
Sparta won’t be the same track without you.